Entering the 19th Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards last night, Iraq war drama “The Hurt Locker” and dark sports comedy “Big Fan” were tied for the most nominations, with three each. The former ended up winning two awards, for Best Feature and Best Ensemble Performance, while the latter picked up a trophy for Breakthrough Director for helmer Robert Siegel.

With only six competitive categories, the awards ceremony — held at Cipriani Wall Street before a starry crowd that included Meryl Streep, Chris Rock and Tim Robbins — also recognized a Best Documentary (“Food, Inc.”), Breakthrough Actor (“Catalina Saavedra”) and Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You (“You Won’t Miss Me”). In between awards, tributes were given to the actors Natalie Portman and Stanley Tucci, and “Hurt Locker” director Kethryn Bigelow. Portman, who was introduced by her “Brothers” director Jim Sheridan, joked that as her roles have evolved from Lolita to prostitute to mom, her career was now “over.” Tucci noted that he “felt much too young, but looked too old” for his award. Bigelow was presented her trophy by actor Willem Dafoe, who has known the director for almost 30 years.

Dafoe, who starred in Lars van Trier’s controversial film “Antichrist” earlier this year, was at the receiving end of many of the evening’s jokes, ranging from presenter Rosie Perez wanting to know if he really bared bared all in the film, to host Kumail Nanjiani, who nailed him with an “Antichrist” zinger as well.

“I was watching him as I was telling the joke, you could tell that he had a good attitude about it and was laughing and having a good time,” said Nanjiani, who during his monologue, also joked that an award ceremony for independent films that nobody had seen was right to hire a host that no one had ever heard of. “So I kept ribbing him. The entire thing was a little surreal.” (Though maybe Dafoe was a little more bothered than he let on.)

Also finding the evening surreal was “The Hurt Locker” co-star Jeremy Renner, who said he isn’t quite used to all the media attention and awards season speculation yet. “It still feels unnatural to me,” he said. “But I’m strapping in for the ride.”

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Speakeasy is a blog covering media, entertainment, celebrity and the arts. The publication is produced by Barbara Chai and Jonathan Welsh with contributions from the Wall Street Journal staff and others. Write to us at speakeasy@wsj.com or follow us on Twitter at @WSJSpeakeasy or individually @barbarachai.